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US News: James O’Keefe Arrested, Undercutting ACORN Allegations

By FZ - Posted on 14 March 2011

January 26, 2010- James O'Keefe, who became a conservative media star last year for his videos skewering ACORN, was among four people arrested for trying to tap the phones in Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans. The story is borderline comical. According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes, O'Keefe was loitering around Landrieu's office when his two alleged accomplices, "each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light fluorescent green vest, a tool belt, and carrying white, construction-style hard hat," came in, claimed they were from the phone company, and asked for access to the phones. O'Keefe used his mobile phone to film them.

It sounds like something out of the tritest kind of television script. And, if the charges are true, that's actually not terribly surprising. Judging by the ACORN caper, O'Keefe's style isn't simply to prove corruption but stupidity. It's ironic, then, that the rank lack of sense in his latest alleged stunt calls into question his ACORN charges.

His ACORN video, you will recall, featured shots of him dressing as a caricature pimp, with a similarly attired "prostitute," asking ACORN workers for help setting up prostitution rings, trafficking in children, and evading taxes. The message was ACORN perfidy; the sub-text was: Not only are these people corrupt, they're too stupid to see an obvious set-up. One can imagine the same sub-text surrounding whatever scheme he was (apparently) attempting with Landrieu's office: Not only are they corrupt, but we snared them with a plot contrivance straight out of the worst kind of spy TV. But it turns out that O'Keefe is less Michael Westen than Michael Scott.